By the time she was 18, Sally was well on the way to becoming Suki. She was still on the checkout at the local supermarket and she was still planning how not be there for the rest of her life. She wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. What she did know was that men were starting to take notice of her.
There was quite a fit guy who began to shop in the supermarket regularly. He never bought much -probably so he had to go back regularly. She was surprised he always arrived at her till until one day she saw him lurking in the aisles until her checkout was free. Then she knew she had the advantage and decided to play games with him.
‘I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?’ she began and smiled that smile.
‘Oh, have you?’ he stammered, blushing to the roots of his sleek black hair.
‘Maybe it wasn’t you,’ she continued. ‘That’ll be £3.29 please.’
As he fumbled for his money she continued to smile and fluttered her long curled eyelashes. She told me afterwards that as soon as she had his attention she gave him his change making sure that her hand touched his a little longer than she needed to. Then she smiled sweetly at the next person in the queue so that he had to just grab his groceries and run. And that’s almost what he did apparently, ran out of the store.
‘He’ll be back,’ she told me confidently.
And of course he was. ‘Why don’t you put him out of his misery and go out for a drink with him?’ I asked.
‘I’m having too much fun,’ she said. ‘And when I do finally go out with him, he’ll be so desperate, he’ll do anything I ask.’
His name was Adam and he was her first conquest – rather appropriately I always thought, Adam being her first man. Poor Adam, he didn’t stand a chance. She strung him along for several weeks before she agreed to go out with him, and she was right. He was desperate. He bought her chocolates and flowers. He took her to the cinema and to Doncaster’s finest restaurant for a meal. And she treated him like dirt.
‘Why can’t you just be kind to him?’ I asked.
‘He loves the way I treat him,’ she said.
And she was right. Adam gave her the germ of an idea, and she began to plan her future.